How the manager of Can Jorba saved his life after being sentenced to death in 1938

Barcelona"I think today or tomorrow they will take us to Montjuïc. [...] I have nothing but to thank God our Lord for giving me reason and occasion to suffer [...] Do not lose hope. Lift up your hearts!".These are the words written by Domènec Ribas Prat on November 11, 1938, two and a half months before Franco's troops occupied Barcelona. Ribas (1888-1955), manager of Magatzems Jorba —Can Jorba, on Portal d'Àngel in Barcelona—, addressed it to his wife, Neus Jorba, just after learning of the sentence that condemned him to death. Although his file has not been preserved at the Model Prison, the text indicates that when he wrote the letter his transfer to Montjuïc Castle was imminent. Along with the text, Oriol Font, the businessman's grandson, has given the association Memòria i Història de Manresaan unpublished drawing by an unknown author depicting the businessman during his captivity in Montjuïc.

According to the family's testimony, the reasons for his detention are related to his religiosity and the fact that he had facilitated the celebration of clandestine masses at his home, on Carrer de Santa Anna, during the Civil War. In fact, there is a photograph of an altar set up in his home. The letter, on the other hand, also makes his religious convictions very clear. There is another testimony of his religiosity and his condemnation. In May 1955, the obituary published in the magazine Jorba, details his detention: “Sectarianism did not forgive his good character and pursued him fiercely during the red dominion, being arrested and taken to Montjuich, where the so-called tribunals of... justice condemned him to death, a sentence he was able to escape by the design of Divine Providence”.

Evacuation to La Garrotxa

The letter that the businessman sent to his wife ends by explaining that some friends are working to get a review of the sentence, but that he is already resigned to his fate. In January 1939, with the imminent fall of Barcelona, Ribas was part of a forced evacuation of prisoners towards the French border. During the retreat, the group stopped at the sanctuary of Santa Maria del Collell (Garrotxa), where about fifty inmates were executed on January 30. Ribas, in a turn of events that the same Revista Jorba would describe years later (in May 1955) as a "design of Divine Providence", managed to save his life and avoid execution.

Captivity had left a physical mark. Oriol Font recalls that his grandfather returned very emaciated: "My mother found him in the street when he was arriving home and didn't recognize him." Shortly after, Domènec Ribas resumed his business activities at the head of Magatzems Jorba in Barcelona. To this day, a vestige of these department stores that dominated Portal de l'Àngel for a good part of the last century is preserved, until they were acquired by Galerías Preciados in 1962 and later by El Corte Inglés in 1995. The department stores opened in 1926 and became one of the favorite businesses of Barcelona society at the time, alongside the historic Sepu and El Siglo. The building had a large terrace where everything was done: from radio programs to concerts and contests. There was also an area with attractions and a small zoo. They were the first business in Spain to install escalators.

During the Civil War, there was violence from both sides. Nevertheless, the dictatorship's repression was much fiercer and more systematic. Punishment was carried out at all levels, starting with the confiscation of properties from Republican families and continuing with the purging, detention, and punishment of all those suspected of being contrary to the dictatorship. It is estimated that 3,385 people were executed in Catalonia and, throughout the State, according to Paul Preston, more than 50,000. Hundreds of thousands were sent to concentration camps and prisons. More than half a million took the path into exile. On the other hand, the late historian and monk of Montserrat, Hilari Raguer, always championed the work that Lluís Companys did to help many priests embark on the path of exile. “The Catalan Church has not yet recognized or thanked all the efforts Companys made during the Civil War,” he recalled in the newspaper ARA.